If you are missing half the regular flour (dry ingredient) then you will have a wet dough. Adding more flour will make it drier. As such this is definitely closer to a poolish than a biga

I had a shake of a few cartons at the shops yesterday, some definitely have air in them. Not able to compare it before and after opening but I'm curious if there's a difference

Interesting! I haven't ever handled an unopened carton with air, although admittedly I predominantly handle soy milk cartons. I wonder if that's a difference of preservatives etc. It would be interesting to know if the ones with air still feel different when unopened vs opened

You absolutely can use soap or dishwashing liquid. This used to apply when soaps were lye based but as this is no longer the case they are fine to use

When you bring it to smoking on the stove as a one off, it should only just start lightly smoking. Depending on your burner it may only take 5 min or so. Thats the other benefit of this method, no leaving the pan in a hot oven for hours and filling the house with smoke :) nope, the amount of non-polymerised oil left on the pan is negligible (should be hardly noticable) so I never bother. With that said, if I'd left the pan in the cupboard for months and it had gone sticky, then I may give it either a quick wash or heat cycle, but I'm yet to leave my pan unused for more than a few days

Cooking greens in salted water (2-3% salinity) will also help keep your greens green, while also seasoning from within without breaking down the pectin in the greans making them mushy (this happens in alkaline environments, a la bicarb soda in your water)

The type of chickpea also makes a difference, in Australia we have Ord river chickpeas which are by far the best for a smooth creamy hummus

I find removing most of the skins to be fairly easy with a few extra steps. After soaking and cooking the chickpeas with a healthy pinch of bicarb and salt, drain the chickpeas and rinse in cold water. In a large bowl, rub submerged chickpeas between your hands to dislodge the skins and pour out most of the water through a strainer. Most of the skins will run out of the bowl with the water as they are lighter than the chickpeas themselves. Repeat this process a couple times till you either aren't getting many more skins off or you're not bothered to continue. :) Makes for a very smooth hummus

Personally I like a smooth hummus and use a blender rather than a food processor (to excellent result). I feel like using a juicer may make it harder to control the consistency, but I haven't used a juicer in a while so I definitely can't comment with authority. Also homogenising the hummus may need to happen in a mixing bowl once 'juiced'

The seasoning process formes a polymerised layer which is essentially a plastic. Standard dish soap used today will not affect this polymer and will only break down lipids (fats). The misnomer of not using soap used to be valid as the lye in soap wpuld break down the polymers, but soap these days has no lye, and is no where near as harsh and therefore don't effect a true seasoning layer

If soap effects your 'seasoning' then you haven't built up a true polymerised seasoning and you just have a greasy pan

-1 there is no need to avoid soap or washing your pan. Obviously you want to avoid aggressive abrasive scrubbing as that will wear down the seasoning, but otherwise normal washing with hot soapy water is perfectly fine.